The term "21st Century Skills" is now our mantra in education. Even though we are more than one tenth of the way into this century, our comprehension of the challenge we face in meeting the needs of our students in order to effectively prepare them for this rapidly changing world is really just now beginning to sink in. 21st Century Skills, which focus on communication, collaboration, creativity and otherwise problem solving lends itself nicely to the goal of Catholic Education where we are looking, and have been for many years, to educate the entire child. A huge part of our mission is to instill Catholic values of service, working with others and for others, and sharing our faith. 21st Century Skillls as we know them are an excellent avenue for our Catholic School educators to make sure our students achieve the goal of our Cathollic institutions.
Catholic schools need to be open to the changing landscape in the filed of education. So much research is coming out about pedagogical practice that meets students needs and engages them as learners. We need to move beyond the "telling" and move strongly into the "wondering" with our students. 21st Century instruction is not just about technology. In fact it is more about human communication, interaction,and engagement than anything else. Rather than teaching students the answers, we need to teach them how to ask questions, seek information, analyze that information, and from there enter into a problem solving mode that includes trial and error and evaluation of results. All of this needs to culminate in some for product that conveys their message to their target audience. These are the kind of skills we need to be teaching our students. As Catholic Schools we get to choose the curriculum and resources we want to deliver this type of instruction. The Bible and the teachings of Jesus provide a great foundation for 21st Century pedagogical practice. When viewed through a certain lens, these changing times could be the most exciting thing to happen to us in a long time. As Catholic Schools we need to be jumping at the opportunity to provide the highest quality education to our students that is thoroughly infused with the message of God and Jesus Christ.
I have been reading a book titled 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn. This book is a compilation of short reads edited by James Bellanca and Ron Brant. One of the pieces in the publication is titled Five Minds for the Future, written by Howard Gardner. In this piece he makes a compelling argument that in the past decade two more types of "minds" have come to light and that we need to take these into account as the education field continues to shift and change to meet our students' and our societal needs. He identified three types of minds: Disciplined, Synthesizing, and Creative as the dominant types of thinking that our educational system needed to address as we move our studnets through our antiquated grade structure! Gardner asserts that he would have stopped here had he written this ten years ago, however he is engaged in research that has led him to "postulate and ponder two additional kinds of minds." In his research, he has identiifed the rise of the Respectful mind and the Ethical mind. A Catholic education fits perfectly with this emerging finding! Gardner's research is nothing new to those of us who have been through a Catholic education where respect and ethics are at the core of our instruction model.
Increasing our understanding of how the human mind works gives educators insight into how we can craft instruction to meet the needs of students at their level of interest and comprehension. Gardner's discussion of the Five Minds leads us farther down the path of 21st Century Skills - not 21st Century Knowledge. The most clear change that we are coming to realize in education is the need to develop a broad skillset that involves curation of vast amounts of knowledge as opposed to "learning" large volumes of content that we somehow need to apply in a specific situation. The world requires us to be flexible and adaptable while having the confidence to make choices, deal with failures and move on confidently. This is inherently different from the upbringing of most of us tweeners. Currently, we have this large population of people raised and educated one way trying to adapt to a shifting environment and yet still offer a quality education experience to our youth so that they have the opportunity to choose their path and create their own life, in the image of Christ, and become whatever they want to be!
